


a moment of silence

by gamb



Series: Fictober 2018 [2]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Gen, Mid-Kaladesh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 09:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16302179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gamb/pseuds/gamb
Summary: "The Gremlin's Wedding March" begins its 586th repetition.  Nissa can't stand it anymore.





	a moment of silence

During the course of the day and night Nissa has memorized every note of the "The Gremlin's Wedding March", and so she knows that the song is almost over. As she has for every iteration, she holds her breath as the song ends and silently begs it not to begin again. Let _this_ be the final repetition. She holds for one heartbeat, then two, and then a brassy trill announces the arrival of another chorus and Nissa lets out a disappointed exhalation. Except this time, without her bidding, her breath comes out as a scream.

Her eyes snap open in surprise. Goosebumps raise on her skin as she feels the ambient mana swirl away, drawn towards her friends as they prepare spells to fight off whatever-it-is that has seized her.

"Sorry," she tells no one, as no one can hear her over the mechanical music. She is--was--a Joraga warrior. She has fought Eldrazi titans; she has fought a planeswalking demon. Mere music should not be able to have this effect on her. It isn't magical, it's just annoying, just _noise_ , and her world has always been noisy--this song is no louder than the Roil itself, no more repetitive than the raucous flocks of birds that had once lived in Bala Ged. It should not be able to affect her like this.

Nissa takes in a sharp breath through her nose and lets it out in a gasp. She closes her eyes to prevent the tears there from growing any larger. _It should not be able to affect her like this_!

Chandra, a scant dozen steps away when Nissa screamed, is the first to reach her. "Hey--what's the--can I--?" Chandra shouts over the clangor, aborting half a dozen sentences before falling silent. Nissa can feel the heat from Chandra's hand radiating onto her shoulder, even though Chandra hasn't touched her yet. She opens her mouth to begin to try to explain what is wrong--

Then Chandra yanks her hand back, and sudden coolness of her shoulder is matched by something cool sitting next to her. Jace has sat beside her, and Nissa smiles. She doesn't need to _explain_ things to Jace--at least, not with words--and that is a blessing, because she isn't yet sure she can explain why the song has taken such hold of her, nor is she certain she can speak loudly enough to be heard given the newfound tightness in her throat. Jace asks permission with a pressure at her temples and she accedes eagerly. A connection blooms between them, and he does not resist when she pushes against his mind, seeking entry, seeking an answer: human hearing cannot be so poor that her companions can't hear this, so how, _how_ is it that she is affected and they are not?

The song sounds no different through Jace's ears than through her own, and Nissa grinds her teeth. She contemplates planeswalking away, just long enough for the ringing in her ears to stop. Or perhaps--the machine blaring its neverending music into the night is visible from where she sits. It is behind the barricades, but it has only a small contingent of guards and operators. They could attack it, destroy it, silence its odious facsimile of a voice forever--

Nissa shivers against a sudden, phantom chill. Jace's mind is frigid, dark and still, like the water at the bottom of a lake, and the mental temperature drops as he resumes control of the telepathic connection between them. The sensation is bracing; Nissa is, with the help of something novel to focus on, able to regain a small measure of her composure.

" _You want to learn a trick_?" Jace asks soundlessly. She gets the impression he is smiling. He does not wait for her confirmation; he begins weaving a spell, going slowly so she can see how he does it. The song is already the only thing she can hear, but as the spell builds all of her other senses fade so that the _only_ thing she can perceive is that _song_ , about to begin yet another round. She whimpers in protest and struggles against the impulse to pull away from Jace. The'trick' is making everything worse; she can't bear to listen to the song _again_ , not with no other sensation to ground her--and then Jace completes the spell, and reality twists around her, and Nissa realizes that the spell he cast has formed a familiar shape in the same moment she realizes the song is gone. Or rather, it is-- _distant_. She is still aware of it, but it is like the bellow of a baloth in a neighboring valley, faint and inconsequential.

" _Thank you_ ," she says, making the effort to think the actual words instead of simply projecting gratitude. " _How did you learn that_?" The spell is unexpectedly reminiscent of the magic of the lullmages: a pulse of mana carefully timed to counterbalance the Roil.

" _Experimentation. Sometimes the Radkos want to party when the Guildpact wants to sleep_." Again, she feels as if he is smiling, and this time she opens her eyes to confirm. He _is_ smiling; she ducks her head and returns it sheepishly. Chandra, still kneeling before her, wrings her hands and quirks her lips into a mirroring uncertain smile.

"I'm sorry," Nissa says aloud. "I was...overcome."

"Harassing your enemy with noise like this is a common battlefield tactic to destroy morale," Jace tells her. "It's more effective than you'd think."

"You okay?" Chandra asks.

Nissa nods and stands. Without the song, she hears the sounds of Kaladesh at night: crickets, wind, the hum of cruisers, the susurration of an entire city breathing. A curl of aether crackles in the sky above. She sighs in relief and settles back into the fronds of one of the potted palms Yahenni keeps on her patio. Here, hidden in the stalks, listening to the city at night, she could believe she is home.

**Author's Note:**

> For Fictober #2 "tranquility"


End file.
